So I am in the audience when my son was “The Wiz” in the “The Wiz” and out of nowhere he says some things that were not in the play the night before. “What’s cooler than cool.” ” Shaking like a Polaroid picture.” He is singing and then passes out like James Brown used to do. The Wiz didn’t do that. What in the world is the high school director thinking? Dorothy, the Lion, the Tin man, the Scarecrow help him up like the entourage of James Brown used to do. The students are going wild and I am wondering what in the hell is going on? Well he interjected all this stuff into the play unbeknownst to the teacher director but the entire cast is in on it. Note the video that when he asks the question about “cool” they all answer in unison. I was unaware of the Outkast song “Hey Ya” at the time, but obviously he found a way to incorporate it into the play much to the delight of the students who knew the song and appreciated the “hidden agenda.”

So for the hell of it I google prostate cancer and The Wizard of Oz and sure enough up comes an article about Andrew Lloyd Webber and his doing a production of the play and that he has had prostate cancer. Does that disease know no bounds? If you read the piece his concern is about copyrights? What? Is that what you would be thinking about if you were concerned about your longevity? What about a loved one, charities and the like?

The Wizard of Oz is also the first musical Lloyd Webber has worked on since he was successfully treated for prostate cancer in 2009.

I wondered how having cancer had affected his attitude to work, and indeed to life. “Ah…” he says folding his hands together. “That’s a terrible question to answer.

“The moment the doctor said he wanted to do a biopsy, in my heart I thought I’d probably got it. But I also know a lot of people who have also had prostate cancer so I had a reasonably good idea what to expect. I think it has made me aware of how lucky I’ve been. I don’t know how quickly it would have spread if I’d left it, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough to have done endless chemo and all that. Has it changed my attitude? Hmm… I think the main thing it did was made me realize I had to put my house in order – sort out my copyrights and things like that.”